Subject: IMPORTANT summer travel information

UPDATES as of MAY 5 in paragraphs enclosed by ****UPDATED**** flags.





Hi again folks -

Summer travel dates are coming up fast!  Here are the dates I have for
your teams.  These are the work days; travel may (will) happen on
surrounding days.

rebull/cg4 - june 14-16
gorjian/agn - july 19-21
howell-hoard/sed - aug 2-4
howell-hoard/varstar - aug 6-8

We will take care of setting up logistics at this end (finding a place to
put you and getting keys).

BUT getting the rest of your travel set up is what the rest of this (long)
mail is about.  As is so often the case with travelling for work (where
someone else pays), some parts of this may seem more complicated than it
needs to be, but believe it or not, we're trying to make it easy!

--> ***Please let me know if you'd like me to dial in to one of your group
telecons to talk about these logistics.


Since you all now have done this once, for the AAS meeting, you should
have a general sense of how this works, the most important bit being the
faster you send in your receipts, the faster you get your money back!

However, for these summer visits, things are going to be a little
different, mostly more complicated, than the AAS.  In order to make the
money work out, we need cooperation from you to live as cheaply as
possible. Double up on hotel rooms where possible (especially for
students).  Coordinate your arrival times such that you can rent 1 or 2
vans rather than 4 or 5 compact cars.  Moreover, several of you are
bringing several students (some may bring more than we will pay for), and
I'm sure you'll want all of your students on the same flight.  (If we book
travel, you could end up on different flights.)

****UPDATED****
As a result of all of this, the main, major difference between this
upcoming trip and your past AAS experience is that YOU MAY WISH
to book all your own travel -- at least planes and hotels.  That way, you
can synchronize everything and get everyone where they need to go, when
they need to be there.  (If you would rather not do this, if you'd rather
have us do it, please let me know as soon as possible.)  Regarding
vehicles, this is turning out to be a little more complicated; read on!
****UPDATED****

****UPDATED****
If you would like to drive instead of fly, please contact us
separately.
****UPDATED****


You should plan on being here bright and early and ready to work on the
first day listed above, which means traveling the day before.  Likewise,
we're expecting you to be here through 5pm on the last day listed above.
If you want to come in earlier (or stay later), you need to pay for any
additional hotel nights. Please note that we will not pay for spouses or
more than 2 students per teacher to attend; any of those additional
expenses are up to you. Real-life examples below.

All of the general rules for government travel still apply, as follows.

You will be covered for a round trip, coach class ticket on a domestic
carrier.  We will only reimburse the fare equivalent to a round trip,
coach class ticket on a domestic carrier, as determined by JPL travel.
Most non-refundable tickets available through the internet come in at or
under this JPL level, but if you wish to be sure, don't book your travel
until you get a cost estimate from our folks here; please email Mary Ellen
Barba (meb@ipac.caltech.edu) with estimated costs you've found and general
parameters (e.g., ORD-> LAX, on such-and-such a date & time, returning on
such-and-such date & time).  You should plan on flying into BUR
(Burbank=Bob Hope Airport) or LAX; BUR is easier.  Anything else in the
area (Ontario, Long Beach, Orange County/John Wayne) is sufficently far
away that you better be looking at some kick-ass airfares to justify the
drive.

You will be covered for a hotel at government rates in this area, which is
up to $135 per night.  Most online bookings come in cheaper than that.

Just like for the AAS, you will be reimbursed the government per diem for
food and ancillary items for the relevant (pro rated) fraction of your
travel days, plus all the days spent at the conference. No need to save
individual receipts; the per diem is what we will pay, and all we will pay
for. If you are staying longer (or eating steak and lobster at each meal),
then you must pay for that additional food.  The government per diem for
summer in Pasadena is $71/day ($53.25 first and last day, pro-rated).

OK, now cars. It is at this point that you may end up holding your head in
your hands.  You can each rent a car, and we'll pay for it, but that's
expensive, and historically some teachers have been unwilling to drive in
LA, which I can understand.  You'll be reimbursed for a rental car,
standard class (no Lamborghinis but no need to do sub-compacts either).
BUT, frankly we'd rather you live more cheaply, and as such have secured
permission for you all to rent fewer but larger vehicles, e.g., one or two
of you per team could rent a van and drive the others around. This will be
probably more fun for the group anyway, as well as cheaper.  However, JPL
makes it somewhat difficult to rent vans, so if you would like to do this,
we need to make the van reservation. Once you have set up arrival
places/times, email either Mary Ellen Barba (meb@ipac.caltech.edu) or
Wannetta Lockhart (wannetta@ipac.caltech.edu) with the driver's (drivers')
name(s) and arrival times/places and she'll make the van reservations
through JPL. This actually does work out to be a better solution, because
if JPL makes the reservation, JPL also insures you.

****UPDATED****
Again, as before, the faster you submit your receipts, the faster
you'll be reimbursed. AT THIS TIME, THE ONLY REIMBURSEMENTS WE CAN DO
ARE AFTER THE TRIP, DUE TO RESTRICTIONS ON GOVERNMENT TRAVEL.  Send
them to Mary Ellen Barba (meb@ipac.caltech.edu), 1200 E. California
Blvd, Mail Stop 100-22, Pasadena, CA, 91101. 
Students for whom we are paying will get their reimbursements faster
if we can enter them into the system before they travel; please
contact us separately if you have students for whom we are paying and
for whom we did not book airfare in advance.
****UPDATED****

General information on your visit can be found here:
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/teacher_research/visit/
There are several useful links lower down on that page , with hotel
suggestions, etc., but I encourage you to do a little web research. The
Athenaeum (the faculty club on campus) is where we used to put people, but
they have some bizarro policies and more importantly charge more than the
government per diem. I would not recommend that.

There are also, importantly, Authorizations/Medical Release forms for
your students. PLEASE have your students fill these out and fax or
scan/email/snail mail them to me (Luisa Rebull) BEFORE YOU ARRIVE IN
PASADENA.  (If you fax it, please actually put my name on the cover,
and follow it up with an email to me to go get it -- I share the fax
machine with the entire floor, and if I don't know to go get it, it
will be lost.)




OK, real life examples.

(1) Teacher A brought a spouse to help with chaperoning. Even though the
spouse was helping out, we only paid for Teacher A's half of the hotel
room and Teacher A's food.  The spouse did not rent an additional car, so
no additional expenses were incurred.

(2) Team X did some group web research and found that Santa Anita had some
considerably cheaper hotels than Pasadena during that particular week, so
they stayed out there and drove in every day (~6 mi, but in the direction
of the rush hour flow, so I'm not sure how long it actually took them
every day.)

(3) Team Y managed to get 60% of their teachers into Burbank all within 2
hours of each other. They rented a total of 2 vans, and drove to Pasadena
together. One teacher went back to the airport to pick up some of the
remaining people later on that day; the others, coming from another
airport, took a Super Shuttle directly to the hotel
(http://www.supershuttle.com/).  The two teachers whose names appeared on
the rental agreements were the ones who submitted the rental van receipts
and were reimbursed for that expense.


Any questions?  I'm sure there will be .. Please let me know. Please also
let me know if you want to try to dial in to one of your group's regular
telecons to talk through this.


If it would help, please feel free to set up a wiki page to coordinate
travel. There's a skeletal example page set up as part of the CG4 current
research activities page:
http://coolwiki.ipac.caltech.edu/index.php/CG4_Current_Research_Activities
(see "summer visit").  I can help you do this for your teams if you would
like.


cheers,
Luisa


Dr. Luisa Rebull            Research Scientist, Spitzer Science Center
Caltech M/S 220-6           voice 626-395-4565
1200 E. California Blvd.    FAX 626-568-0673
Pasadena, CA 91125
